Rotherham United: Tubbs on the radar as Millers seek new strikers

Les Payne

It was assistant manager Paul Raynor - rather than Steve Evans - who spoke about potential signings at the recent Rotherham United fans forum.

“There are strikers on the radar,” he said. “We are in talks with agents.”

Perhaps nothing overly surprising there, however. What would be a surprise was any admission they weren’t looking for additional firepower!

Evans has been pretty low key so far in contrast to last year, when there were more deals than a night of poker. .

The Rotherham United manager is playing his cards close to his chest although there has been plenty of activity behind the scenes.

One can be sure Evans will continue to monitor the situation of Matt Tubbs, the striker he signed for Crawley and sold last year to Bournemouth in a deal reportedly worth £800,000 (although that’s not to say the Cherries actually shelled that out).

Evans was linked last season but never really as a possibility. He was now in League One and his home area.

But Tubbs never really broke through, only six starts (Lewis Grabban was among those keeping him out) but some 30 subs appearances and he did get half-a-dozen goals.

It begs the question that if he wasn’t a regular starter in League One, will he get any more starts in The Championship?.

Manager Eddie Howe is aiming to bring back striker Danny Ings who Bournemouth sold to Burnley when Howe was there. So Tubbs is surely surplus goods.

Any fee would have to totally eclipse Rotherham’s previous record of £150,000, then there’s personal terms, although Rotherham are certainly competing there - one League One boss has said privately that he’s been in for a couple of players and he couldn’t match what Rotherham had offered.